Do you have a smart phone or tablet?

Flip phone here also. No plans on running trains with the notebook I am on because it plays music that is not played anymore on the radio.

Art

I have an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy slll. The iPad is wonderful,the Samsung phone stinks.

I might run trains with a tablet at some point, if I see an advantage in doing so.

Jeff C

I Phone that serves me very well.

Clem k 

No smart phone for now. I'm waiting until after my Granddaughter turns "2" so she can show me how to use it. For now, you can have my flip phone if you can pry it from my dry, cracking, and age spotted hands.

With zero coaching she already has the speed wheel and whistle button on the DCS remote figured out.

Gilly

iPhone and iPad.  Currently running only conventional so no immediate plans to run trains from them.  I am open to future use depending on a number of factors like cost, utility, features, etc.

I have a iPhone 5 and a Android 7 inch tablet.

I have not used my iPhone to control my trains. It just seems too small. Maybe if the app only had minimal basic controls like a slider for speed and buttons for direction, couplers, horn and bell. Then I might be more inclined to use it.

No, I do not have LCS and have never seen the iCab app.

My Android tablet, on the other hand, I have found to be a great tool for so many things. I have used the Bluetrain app for controlling my TMCC trains (i have no legacy) and it works great. I like using the tablet more than my CAB1L.

Being that its a smaller 7 inch model, it fits comfortably in one hand and can slip it into my pocket. (I have big hands and big pockets )

Along with all the usual stuff that a tablet can do, I also it for network diagnostics and for diagnostics on my car.

Like I said, its a great tool, and I find myself using more than my PC and iPhone.

My iPhone is now just for phone calls and music.

I like and embrace technology. We have four desktop and one laptop computers at home, and I use them for a variety of uses. (I do not do facebook.)

I hope to control my trains with a touchscreen and dedicated computer ‘soon’, and be able to program automatic sequences to run several trains and perform operations.

My wife and I have a cheap Pantech cell phones and $25/90-day AT&T plans. These allow us to make the calls we need to make, text, and even rudimentary web access that is good enough to look up restaurant phone numbers to make reservations, for example.

Other than that, No I-devices of any sort.

Alex

No smart phone (I only begrudgingly replaced my 7 yo Tracfone flip phone (Mot V170) with another (LG 440G) when I started having coverage issues at my home).  I don't live on the phone all the time, so I have more than enough minutes/units from renewing each year since they carry over(~ $100 for a year).

I do have an iPod Touch.  I would consider playing with the iCab app, but based on the comments about it's cost, I may not ever bother (can someone clue me in?  ~$50, ~$100, ???).

When the iPad LCS was first announced, I thought it was promising, but when it came further along and I saw a demo or 2 at York (probably more than a year ago), I pretty much decided that for the path it is on now, it is not worth me investing in an iPad just to play with it occasionally for the trains.

As to Jack's comment about the "fear" of the new technology, the "fear" in my case (and possibly others) is that if the system becomes dependent on such technology, there is no alternative anymore.  (i.e., someday down the road when there is no way to get parts to build DCS or Legacy remotes without a significant re-design, it becomes the scenario where you have to buy the new technology just to keep playing.  That's the "fear" part.  Of course it is more cost effective for the train company to not have to design a new piece of hardware, but that assumes they do not lose a significant number of customers once apps are "the only way to fly")

-Dave

I have an Iphone that I use to listen to the Notch 6 podcast!!!

I don't have legacy, but I do have DCS. I may use my phone to connect to it, but $160 seems excessive for a usb plugged in wifi module when a wireless router can be bought for less than $20.

I have a smart phone, DCS and do not plan to ever run my trains with my phone.

I have both an LG android smart phone and tablet but don't anticipate using them with my trains.

My phone...

iPhone and iPad for me.

I would like to try the app on a real world experience first, but I think I would still prefer the tactile feel of the sliders, and knob. The rest can be touch screen.

Charlie

I have four kids in the house; I quite literally stumble over tablets and smart phones.  

- 3 Android Tablets

- 1 Windows Tablet (work)

- 1 iPad

- 2 iPod 'Touch'

- 5 iPhones (two are older and off of service plans)

- 1 Samsung Galaxy S3 (work)

So yeah, bring on the apps...  

I have an IPad but, run my trains with both a Cab1 and Cab2.

George

Have two Android Phones, both of which have BlueTrain so I can run my TMCC stuff. Had a tablet, but I "bricked" it trying to do a hack/upgrade. Prefer "throw-away" laptops I can get for under $300 to spending $400 for an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 (just bought another one for $200, though I don't care for Windows 8.1).

Have no plans to run my trains from a computer, though. I'd rather have a remote.

YES.

I own ZERO iAnythings...........never will God willing.

And ZERO interest running my trains with such devices.

I am happy most cell phones do not work in the layout room.....it's the basement and we are on the edge of a cell phone dark zone due to Green Bank Telescope installation near me.

Why are OGR forumites so interested in what I have or don't have?  I don't mind sharing what train stuff I enjoy here, but my other stuff is not anyone else's concern.

Pete

I have an iPhone but I don't run my trains w/ it - something about not being a compatible OS w/ postwar trains  

I work w/ computers all day - last thing I want is a computer to run my trains. I like to go in the train room w/ no phone or computers, hands on the ZW & KW & just let my imagination do the work

Cell phone's are killers if not used responsibly.  Very few will admit to it but there are more drivers on the road texting and talking on their cell phone than there are drunk drivers.  It's dangerous enough on the highways and roads let alone being distracted by texting or talking on a cell phone.  Every time I stop at a signal light I can count one or two people doing this, some with children in the car. 

Steve, Lady and Tex

I have iphone and ipad. I just jumped from conventional to legacy after buying a big boy. Now I have been looking at more legancy and dcs engines.  I will be jumping on the ipad soon to control the engines.  I waiting to go to York and watch how it is done first, not a fan of reading 100 page manuels.

I have a 'smarter than me' phone. Had it a week and could not imagine how I ever got along without it! I don't think it would ever interact well with post-war type running.

Iphone 4s with the overpriced iCab app on it. 

I have a Samsung 10” Tablet and I would like to be able to run my trains on it.  I can see many advantages especially when running multiple trains.  I now use TMCC but ahev no plans to convert to Legacy or DCS.  I would like some input on what I need to buy to be able to use my android tablet to interface with TMCC to control the trains, switches, accessories, etc. 

I can understand that some members prefer to run their trains with older technology as I resisted converting to TMCC for several years.  But looking at the big picture, we absolutely need to attract younger people into the hobby, so IMO having the OPTION to control trains with these modern electronic devices is absolutely essential to achieving that objective.

Bill

I phone and I Pad, posting to the forum from both.  Us legacy cab 2 and ZW-L for running S gauge trains.  At some point I will incorporate my phone and tablet into the mix.  

Ben. 

To answer the original question in the title of this thread:

NO, and NO!

No tablet, no Iphone(get thee away from me all things Apple!). Do have a semi smart phone(texting/video/internet) No need for smartphone. have DCS and love it. No need for Lionel CC stuff. sometimes prefer running conventional.

The big picture is, until trains become a major part of everyone's life like they were back in the days of big-time passenger railroading, and the times when the arrival of the daily train was a town's main connection with the "outside" world, young people will just plain not be interested no matter if they can use mental telepathy to control the toy trains.

Roads, the interstate highway system, and air travel are the norm now, so what's to attract younger people to trains?  Trains are no longer a part of people's daily life.  The daily mail train is no more.  The very technology you advocate actually is killing interest in modern railroading except for those who are directly involved.

Pete

Iphone and Ipad.  Have ICAB app on the cellphone and the LCS Wifi app on the Ipad.

Neal Jeter

No.

I got a new cell phone 2 days ago; the old Nokia apparently died from neglect after

several years of thin usage. The new one flips open, too. I've made 2 calls on it.

Seems to work. Emergencies, mostly.

I have a Mac (on it now), and right behind me is a Western Electric black dial phone.

It rings, I answer, I talk, I hang up. (It still has the "Property of South Central Bell"

sticker on the bottom that it had when I bought it.) Phones are appliances, like the refrigerator.

Oh, I use TMCC and some DCS. Like it. Don't care for ZW's, F-N-R and the like.

I do see some of the newer "control" possibilities as eventually unavoidably divisive;

of course, guys like me (and our money) will be gone in 10 to 20 years, so we will "lose", inevitably.

But I will resist participating in "O-Gauge Phoning" as a hobby.

BTW, I am a retired computer programmer; had enough of that madness for 2 lifetimes. 

Tablets:

iPad 2, iPad 3 (my son's school tablet), iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD6

Phones:

Two Nokia Lumia 635's and a Lumia 521. (All Windows 8.1 phones)

I have the LCS app.  Not sure about purchasing the wifi adapter.   I prefer to run trains with my two Cab1-L remotes.   I had two Cab2's but sold them.  I like the simpler Cab1-L's better.  

Will not pay the price for the iCab app.   Plus I'm trying to get myself off the Apple ecosystem.

Sent from my Timex Sinclair 1000. 

I have an iPhone, but the only time it gets used around the trains is when I am listening to music while I am working on them.

I agree with both of you here, and I think the manufacturers are addressing both opinions as well. While trains may not be what they used to be in many peoples eyes, I think the play value for kids (both young and old) is still there and will be even more attractive to the younger ones with the iphone, ipad apps. Kids will always like toys and things to play with, something just needs to spark their interest and get them started and I think they will go on from there.

The new command control accessories Lionel has recently announced will be very popular with kids, IMO, and even more so with their operation from the smart devices. The new apps and accessories might just get them interested in also playing with the trains that go along with these items. Kids still like to play, whether it's trains or apps or something else, if it's fun for them they will play with it. Modern toy trains today have much more to offer in play value than the trains we had as kids, again IMO, but I still think they are on the 'right track'. 

iPhone 6+

I have an Android phone and tablet, also an iPad air.  For me there is basically no difference between Apple or Android, just bring up a browser and surf, usually to here.  Do like Android phones, get a new one, login, wait a few minuets and most everything is there.  Add a few apps and I am all set.

I have been extremely disappointed by the pace of software development for both DCS and Legacy apps.  The DCS app has not been updated since October 31st.  The LCS app has not been updated since October 3rd.  The iPad is too big to use as a remote for very long.  Since I only have one iDevice and have not purchased the iCab app.  I am very interested in the LCS app to run my layout but it's too incomplete to be useful on my layout.  The bigger the layout the more useful the apps are, but the bigger the layout the more the LCS app fails to be useful.  There were supposed to be other apps for Legacy but we haven't seen them.  I have Bluetrain, it's a very basic remote replacement.  For these apps to be used they will have to offer something the current remotes don't.

For conventional operators and small layouts these apps offer almost nothing.  Those of us who run multiple trains on a loop find the fancy electronics start to add to the fun.

I have tried the DCS and LCS apps and can't recommend them in their current state. Get them close to done and let's see where we go.

I also believe to get the younger generations involved it is important to get these apps done to a useful point.  Software is never done.

Dan

Galaxy S4 here and a trusty kindle. I don't know. My kids are on their phones for everything else. It is nice to have some established mechanical distraction from a smart phone. I speak of my kids (you know, 'that' generation), but I am just as guilty of trying to do everything possible through my phone. 'Siri. Mix me a drink please.'  

A what?????    No.

Larry

My other phone...